Satellite Antenna Mount

The antenna mounts to the short shaft coing out in either ends of Elevation motor housing. A 1/2 inch PVC join is used to attach the antenna supporting arm. The supporting arm then attaches to the cross beam antennas. See picture of finished assembly below.

There are two things you have to keep in mind regarding the antenna assembly.

(a) The point along the cross beam antenna where the supporting arm is attached should be the center of gravity of the cross beam plus a short length of coax that will be used for the beam.

(b) When both beams are attached, the center of gravity along the supporting arms should be exactly in the middle of the separation and at the center of the Elevation motor assembly.

The following procedure should help achieve this easily:

1. Attach the requisite length of coax to the beams

2. Hold a beam horizontally, find its center of gravity (CG) and mark the spot, repeat for the other one.

3. Figure out how far apart the beams will have to be, and cut a supporting arm of this length

4. Attach the supporting arm length to both beams at their CGs

5. Now find the CG along the supporting arm, mark it and cut it

6. Finally, attach the cut ends to the Elevator motor assemble as shown in picture below.

Even though the antenna beams will be of different weights, care should be taken to balance the assembly so that the center of gravity is at the center of the complete antenna assembly.

Click picture to view the bigger photograph

The finished assembly can be best seen in picture below. At this stage, you should be able to orient the antenna assembly to any angle with very little effort and it should stay there without it dropping back to a "resting" position. Using the center of gravity at each mount point will create a zero torque system and help eliminate undue reverse torque at the Elevation motor.

I have not provided extensive step-by-step instructions or dimensions to duplicate the project, because I hope that you can figure out the details specific to your decisions within your project. However if you do have any questions about the items on this page, I try my best to answer them by adding more content on this page. I can be reached at k6vug@sbcglobal.net